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Clinton brushes off 2016 question

“No, no,” Clinton said, laughing, when a CNN interviewer first raised the possibility of her candidacy in 2016. “I am so looking forward to Monday when I have no schedule, no office to go to, no responsibility.”

“I have absolutely no plans to run,” Clinton added a few seconds later.

“Right now, I am trying to finish my term as secretary of state,” Clinton said. “The president and I had a good laugh the other night. I am out of politics right now. I don’t know everything I’ll be doing. I’ll be working on behalf of women and girls, I’ll be hopefully writing and speaking. Those are things I’m planning on doing right now.”

The secretary’s answers to the 2016 question have become less definitive over time. As recently as October, Clinton flatly said she wasn’t running when asked by Marie Claire magazine. Supporters of President Barack Obama also recently helped retire Clinton’s campaign debt, something the secretary acknowledged in a later interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Clinton’s last day at Foggy Bottom is Friday. The Senate confirmed her successor, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, in a 94-3 vote Tuesday.

While she wasn’t concerned about her successor’s gender, she said it was important for women to “institutionalize” their gains in elected office and top Cabinet positions.

“I think you have to wait to see the entire makeup of the cabinet,” Clinton said when asked about the lack of women at the top of the Treasury, Defense, State and Justice departments in Obama’s second term. “I’m not going to pass any judgments. I think what we have to do is take a look at the broad picture. Clearly, from my perspective, what we have to do is keep providing opportunities for young women to get into that pipeline.”